With his hot sauce collection he’ll never run out of heat!

By Donna Culotta

Perhaps you’ve noticed that hot sauce has become a very popular item in the last decade. People are not just buying it, using it, cooking with it, they’re creating their own.

For Noah Deshotel of Hessmer there’s no denying he loves his hot sauce. So much so that Noah has a collection of over 50 varieties.

“It’s a challenge,” he admits, “because some go bad and then there’s cabinet space and some need to be in the refrigerator.” Noah added, “and most hot sauce will go bad if it doesn’t have a high vinegar content.”

Growing up in a family that used hot sauce, specifically Tabasco and Louisiana Hot Sauce, they were common condiments on the table. “My whole family likes things spicy.”

When he was attending LSU Noah was on a work out program and as he said, “ate tons of eggs and always used hot sauce on them.”

It was also in college that Noah began his hot sauce collection, which means he’s been collecting for about six years.

Today Noah “pretty much eats hot sauce on everything cooked. I’ll eat it on a sandwich and use it when I cook, it adds a lot of complexity, especially if the hot sauce has different ingredients.”

Noah doesn’t claim to be a hot sauce connoisseur but he talks like one. “I have tasted a lot and the more you taste the more you learn.” Because he reads the labels and knows the ingredients, he uses that knowledge when he’s cooking.

For example, on eggs Noah likes a thicker hot sauce with more ingredients. “Some sauces have onions and celery in them, which not only give a good flavor but is a profile adder.”

Noah looks for flavor in his hot sauce selection and said even the hottest, like ghost peppers and habaneros can be enjoyed because all you need is a small, small amount. It’s using too much that makes your mouth feel like you just licked the inside of a hot oven.

“Some hot sauces come with an eye dropper,” he commented.

“I personally like the habanero because I find it has a tropical taste and compliments many foods.”

Green hot sauce is more of a “Mexican flavor using jalapenos;” red hot sauce uses red peppers and “black hot sauce is more potent and a mixture of peppers,” he explained.

According to Noah, “there are so many unique brands out there that are mass produced and are a rendition of something else. There’s tons of hot sauce in the world today with packaging that can draw you in.”

He admitted that he too can be drawn in by the label and the name. “Some do catch my eye and I often buy a bottle because of where it’s made. Tons come from Mexico.”

If you have ever stood in front of an aisle of hot sauces you realize how “creative” the producers of the product can be. Some names to describe the level of heat can be rated ‘R.’

Although he can’t name his favorite because the top ten in his cabinet are specific to different foods, Noah does like the Bravado Spice Company out of Texas. “That’s a good hot sauce,” he said.

‘At the height of my collecting career I would look for hot sauces but not so much now,” he stated.

When family and friends found out he was collecting, Noah was often gifted with a new bottle. “What I like about that is when I use their bottle I think of them, like my grandparents who went to Italy and brought me back a bottle.”

What about his wife, Aliya, and her hot sauce journey. I mean, she is living in a hot sauce house!

“When we were first dating she was not a hot sauce girl,” Noah commented. But Aliya has become a convert and especially likes Texas Pete hot sauce.

Noah hasn’t created his own label yet but he has been in the kitchen creating a few sauces of his own.

When the time comes for Noah’s hot sauce to hit the market, I have a suggestion for a name:

“On the 8th day, God created Noah’s Ark Hot Sauce.”....or not.